He Won What?

My turn to weigh in on Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize, now that the noise from exploding right winger heads is finally diminishing.

Has Obama accomplished much of anything. No, not really. (Not that anyone ever really does accomplish anything remotely resembling peace.) He hasn't achieved any ends. But I will say, that Obama has changed the means. Having a calm, intelligent, reasonable and pleasant man conduct discussions and diplomacy is a 180 turn from bomb first, ask questions later, bullying, torturing, feeling up the Chancellor, etc. So no, he hasn't finished anything. But he has changed the process from the whip to the carrot and that can't be a bad thing.

My Humble Suggestion

There's already quite a bit of clamor calling for Obama to give back the Peace Prize, saying he hasn't done enough/too soon/etc. I'd like to think I have a better idea.

I am assuming there were 2-3 candidates for the prize who were highly favored to win it. Obama should accept the Peace Prize, but at his acceptance speech, say 'thanks, but it's early for me yet. Candidate has done the following for such and such organization, accomplishing blah blah and improving the lives of x number of people. Repeat for the other top candidates. Then announce he 1) shares the prize with them and 2) donates the monetary prize to their organizations, keeping none for himself.  Humble, generous, acknowledges criticisms without giving them validity, supports and promotes worthy causes and everyone gets warm fuzzies.

Decisions, Decisions

Tomorrow: do I go to the dog show, or the Dogfest? Do I try to make it to both? Do I bring CJ with me to Dogfest?

The show is free entry, $3 parking, guaranteed to have lots of purebred dogs and owners happy to have them pose for me, vendors selling the doggy treats CJ and Roxie like best, some of the show is indoors (they're calling for showers tomorrow) and it puts me geographically in the right area to do some craft shopping in Columbia for things I can't find in my end of town.

The Dogfest is $10 entry and no info on parking. No idea what I'll be seeing in terms of dogs or horses, but probably not too many purebreds or folks used to having their pets photographed. There'll be vendors, but I don't know which ones, so I may or may not be able to snag treats. It's all outdoors. It's the wrong end of town for post-event shopping. But there's horseback riding, lots of ponies, cats & small animals as well as dogs, raffles and prizes, goodie bags for dogs and adoptable critters. If I were to bring CJ, I could get her micro-chipped for cheap and I personally think she'd have a fine chance at some of the doggy contests, specifically 'Best Mutt' and 'Clean Your Plate'. She might also snap at the judges, however, and I wouldn't be able to visit other animals, ride a horse, etc.

Gah. What to do, what to do...